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  • Human geography PhD

Human geography PhD

For the last two decades, the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø has made significant contributions to research into key social, political and environmental concerns that constitute twenty-first-century lives. From investigating spaces of authority, activism and protest, to examining embodied politics and practices of access, property rights and citizenship, our human geography staff and PhD students are leading research at the intersections of society, space and environment.

Much of our work takes a critical approach to grounded and material realities and seeks to define and address a range of transformative agendas. Research by human geography-focused staff and PhD students is being used, for example, to examine sexual and gendered inequalities and liveabilities, biopolitics and migration, affect theory, deindustrialisation, emergent theorisations of the commons in relation to new social movements, and political ecologies of enclosure and resource extractivism across a range of geographical contexts.

Recent and current PhD students have been successful in obtaining studentships covering both fees and living costs through the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø’s involvement in the and the . 

Our Human Geography PhD students have gone on to a variety of different roles following the successful completion of their research. These include academic posts as lecturers and postdoctoral research assistants at the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø and elsewhere, plus research roles in, for example, the water industry. Many have gone on to management positions in related areas such as directing an events and education not-for-profit consultancy focused on global citizenship and diversity, working with funding agencies in the UK and internationally.

Apply with us for funding through the ESRC South Coast  Doctoral Training Partnership

Key information

As a human geography PhD student at 69³ÉÈËÍø, you will benefit from:

  • a supervisory team comprising two or three members of expert academic staff. Depending on your research specialism, you may also have an additional supervisor from the , or another research institution or external partner.
  • desk space and access to a desktop PC, usually in one of the postgraduate offices on the sixth floor of the award-winning Cockcroft Building. You will additionally benefit from access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections housed within the Aldrich Library and other campus libraries.
  • The 69³ÉÈËÍø Doctoral College, which offers a training programme for postgraduate researchers, covering research methods and transferable (including employability) skills. Attendance at appropriate modules within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the School’s fortnightly seminar series and research centre/group activities. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Academic environment

The close relationship between human geographers in the School of Applied Sciences and staff in cognate areas of the University including the School of Humanities and Social Science,  the School of Art and Media, and the School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences provide an ideal home for research across the breadth of human geography.

We provide PhD students with opportunities to work with leading scholars in diverse areas that examine spaces, power and justice across the spectrum of human geography. Our interdisciplinary supervisory teams enable students to undertake research that straddles traditional disciplinary boundaries and incorporates, for example, philosophy, queer theory, politics, anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, history and cultural studies.

We look forward to hearing from human geography PhD applicants, particularly where there is an intersection with our major areas of specialism:

  • Biopower, borders and security
  • Cultural and political geography
  • Economic anthropology and economic geography
  • Embodiment, affect, performance and process
  • Environmental futures and sustainability
  • Geographies of development
  • Geographies of finance
  • Geographies of gender, sexes and sexualities
  • Geographies of racism
  • Geographies of sport and leisure
  • Methods in human geography
  • Political ecology
  • Power and place
  • Spaces, power and justice

Some of our supervisors

Profile photo for Dr Daniel Burdsey

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas related to my research interests in sociological, cultural and geographical analyses of race, ethnicity and popular culture. In particular, my work addresses: theorising race and racism in football, with particular focus on connecting ideas around Empire, de/coloniality, racialised identities and anti-racist resistance; Black British leisure, musical and sonic cultures and spaces; the experiences of British Asians in sport and leisure; and social, cultural and geographical aspects of the contemporary English seaside and coast, especially the connections between race, whiteness, migration and ‘new’ spaces of multiculture;

PhD students currently working with me are undertaking research on: conflicts, protest and resistance around modern Olympic Games; identities and experiences of mixed-race university students; tourism in post-Communist Romania; and Black British contemporary intellectual thought. 

Profile photo for Dr Alex Channon

I am able to supervise doctoral research across the fields of sociology, cultural studies, and politics as they pertain to sport, physical education, fitness, and related fields. However, I am particularly interested in sociological studies of the following specialist topics:

  • Martial arts and combat sports
  • Sport-related violence
  • Risk, injury and medical care in sport
  • Consent in sport
Profile photo for Prof Rebecca Elmhirst

I am currently supervising four PhD students, two of whom are part of a H2020 Marie Curie Sklodowska Innovative Training Network. I am interested in supervising MRes and doctoral projects relating to (feminist) political ecology, and in particular, projects that relate to social and environmental justice, climate and agrarian resource extractivism, decolonial thinking and critical approaches to sustainable development. 

Profile photo for Dr Mary Gearey

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students (PhDs and MRes) in the following areas: community led water resource governance; sustainable water futures; elder environmental activism; nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation, degrowth theory in relation to environmental citizenship.

Profile photo for Dr Paul Gilchrist

I would be interested in supervising postgraduate students in the following areas:

- Geographies of sport and leisure- Playful cities and urban everyday life- Community-supported agriculture / community gardening

I also welcome discussions on other potential topics.

Profile photo for Dr Jason Lim

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas: critical race theory, de/post-colonial studies, feminist activism, sexualities, trans studies, political philosophy, history of ontology.

Profile photo for Dr Catherine Kelly

I welcome the opportunity to supervise PhD students with an interest in the areas of tourism and wellbeing, place and wellbeing, sustainability, nature-based tourism, coastal tourism, blue spaces, water and wellbeing, rural tourism, cultural/heritage tourism, national parks and biospheres.

Profile photo for Dr Nicholas McGlynn

I'm interested in supervising postgrad projects in (but not limited to) the following areas: sexual politics outside the metropolis; social and cultural geographies of fat men; Participatory Action Research with LGBTQ communities; and Bear subcultures and spaces.

Profile photo for Dr Douglas McNaughton

Political economy of television production. Aesthetics and narrative in television. Historical development of British television. Representations of space, place and identities in British screen cultures. Science fiction, fantasy and horror, in particular, British folk horror. Telefantasy, world cinema, screen technologies, the sociology of space. Screen acting and performance.

Profile photo for Prof Lesley Murray

I am interested in supervising doctoral students on a range of topics including transport and mobilities, urban sociology, visual sociology and gender and generation. In addition, I welcome proposals from students seeking to adopt creative and inventive methodologies and methods. I am currently supervising projects on: lived experiences of the anthropocene; urban place-attachment across generations; sequential art in architectural practice; urban pocket parks; generation and automobility futures; and the wellbeing of refugee children.

 

For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit  

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Sign in to our to begin.

Fees and funding 

 Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
 Full-timePart-time

UK

£4,786 

£2,393

International (including EU)

£15,900

N/A

International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law

£14,500

N/A


PhD by Publication
Full-time Part-time
 N/A  £2,393

Contact 69³ÉÈËÍø Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of 69³ÉÈËÍø we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the 69³ÉÈËÍø Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.

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University of 69³ÉÈËÍø
Mithras House
Lewes Road
69³ÉÈËÍø
BN2 4AT

Main switchboard 01273 600900

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